European Commissioner for Economy and Taxation-Former Italian Prime Minister Gentiloni said in an interview on the US CNBC website on September 5 that large technology companies must pay a “fair amount” of taxation in Europe because they are in the crisis of the new crown pneumonia epidemic. “True Winner”. This statement comes at a time when the European Union and the United States are arguing over the taxation of technology giants such as Apple, Google and Amazon.
The CNBC website stated that in 2018, the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, proposed a 3% digital tax, stating that the tax system needs to be upgraded to keep pace with the digital age. The European Commission stated that digital companies pay an average effective tax rate of 9.5%, compared to the 23.2% tax rate for traditional companies. However, the White House stated that the digital tax is unfair because it is clearly targeted at US technology companies. According to the report, after the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia pandemic, many people began to work remotely, shop online and keep in touch, and multinational technology giants became more “in the day”. “From an economic point of view, the digital giants are the real winners of this crisis.” Gentiloni said. At the same time, governments of all countries urgently need to raise more funds, and the imposition of new taxes is one of the key ways to achieve this goal.
Some companies have taken countermeasures in response to the EU’s measures to impose a digital service tax on US technology giants. Amazon announced that it will charge a 2% fee to British corporate customers from September. Amazon has already taken similar measures against French sellers due to the digital tax policy implemented in advance by France. Google said on September 2 that it will charge additional fees for ads in certain areas on Google and YouTube starting from November 1 this year. Google claims that the digital tax increases the cost of digital advertising. “Usually, this type of cost increase is borne by the customer.”
